MILAN, Mo. – With six seconds left Green City’s Cheyanne Heaton was at the line as the Gophers trailed Milan by just a single point. Heaton was unable to convert on either of the two attempts, sending the Wildcats to the line after they had controlled the rebound.

Andrea Sylvester missed the front end of a one-and-one, GC was then able to corral the loose ball and call a timeout of their own.

So the game came down to this, three seconds on the clock and the Gophers inbounding the ball from half court. Emily Sorenson got the shot off, however it was no good and Milan prevailed 38-37.

A key for the Gophers was holding Milan senior Hannah Sanders to only 10 points.

“We struggled tonight, we really did, and a lot of that was because of Green City. We had to dig deep tonight, we couldn’t make a basket to save our soul, and Hannah struggled which led to all of us struggling. But we played just enough defense to get the win,” said Milan head coach Jim Cox.

For Milan, they can go home tonight and with a win, all be it ugly but, for Green City things go a little differently.

“We had two options, and got one that we wanted. The girl rushed the shot a little, she had about three seconds, but we haven’t had a lot of end of game situations,” said Green City head coach Wade Sorenson.

Sanders might not have had a typical game for her standards, but she was OK with that.

“We came out pretty good, but then let them back in it. It shouldn’t have been that close of a game, we should have pulled away more at the end. But we played hard and got the win and that’s all that matters,” said Sanders.

Milan started the game on a 9-2, run forcing the Gophers to take an early timeout.

But it was tough sledding for the Ladycats after the first quarter as they only scored 21 points the rest of the game including three in the fourth.

“A lot of missed shots hurt us. We did a good job running our offense and it’s not that we panicked, and we just got a little lazy. Then we took some passes for granted and Green City was there to take advantage of that,” said Cox.

The fourth quarter consisted of a lot of turnovers, missed shots, and fouls by both teams.

“It really wasn’t a struggle for us that’s just kind of how we play offense. But what we did is make some of their girls shoot the ball who aren’t use to shooting the ball and that kind of worked to our favor,” said Sorenson.

Page 2 of 2 - Sanders was the only Wildcat in double-figures. Sylvester had eight points and 12 rebounds.

For the Gophers Emily Sorenson had 16 and Heaton had 12.

GC will next Marceline on Monday. As for Milan they will travel to Unionville to take on Putnam County in what is always an intense matchup.

“We just need to keep shooting and play good defense, because defense is what wins games for us,” said Sanders.